Sunday, March 04, 2012

SJK, SMK Methodist Sibu to Hold Double Celebrations

SIBU: SMK Methodist and SJK Methodist will jointly celebrate their 110th anniversary and Alumni Association’s 40th anniversary on March 30 and 31.

Chairman of the school’s Alumni Association, Alice Wong invited all former students and teachers to join in the meaningful double celebration.

“It will be a celebration marked with joy, recollections and the sharing of testimonies of the early days at the schools. We hope to get as many former students to participate as possible, the more the merrier,” she said at a press conference held at the school yesterday morning.

Alice said the long-awaited celebration will be spread over two days.

On March 30, a sumptuous dinner at RM500 per table will be held at Kingwood Hotel at 6.30pm.

Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh, himself a former school alumnus, is expected to officiate at the celebration.

Tickets are available at RM50 per person.

“Our target is to come up with 150 tables. If the majority of the former students participate in the celebration, we are confident to achieve that target.”

For the night, Alice said former students would be invited to go on stage for live sharing of their early days at the school and what they had gone through.

On the second day on March 31, the programmes will include a thanksgiving service at SMK Methodist’s school hall at 8am.

It will be followed by an exhibition depicting the history of the schools and a walk down memory lane for the students to share their testimony.

“The exhibition will be held in various classes to recollect the various events over the year and witness the success of the school,” she disclosed.

Alice said a commemorative magazine aimed at raising funds would be printed to mark the occasion.

She invited former students to put up congratulatory messages in the magazine as a way of showing their support for the school.

“They can take up half a page or full page and the money raised will go towards the school funds.”

Besides, Alice said they had also prepared T-shirts, key chains and environmental bags to be given away as souvenirs to participants.

Also attending the press conference was chairman of the schools’ Parent-Teacher-Association, Datuk James Tai.

In his brief remarks, Tai said the celebration would be a good moment for former students to cherish and reflect on the formative years of the schools.

“We can imagine the early and the formative years, what Sibu was like 110 years ago – the jungle, the insects and all those difficult conditions, the culture shock and the challenges the early missionaries had to go through to start the school,” he said.

Tai said it was the vision, the faith and the passion of these early missionaries that eventually pushed them through to build the school, with unconditional love.

“Although I am sure there were lots of sweat and tears, there were also moments of peace and joy when they served the people of Sibu then. Because of their faith, they got the strength to carry on and eventually propel the schools to greater heights,” he said.

To date, the school had produced a number of parliamentarians, ministers and prominent community leaders.